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Quod Erat Demonstrandum

Sunday, May 18, 2014 - 7:30pm

SIFF Cinema Uptown

Shot in luminous black-and-white, Quod Erat Demonstrandum—often written as “Q.E.D.” at the conclusion of a mathematical proof—evokes the suffocating nature and deprivation of the Romanian police state, while exposing the cracks that would soon lead to its violent demise. Romanian mathematician Sorin Parvu (Sorin Leoveanu) made a splash when an article on one of his theorems was published in an American journal. But because he’s a citizen of the Ceaușescu regime of the 1980s, all that matters to the Securitate, or secret police, is Sorin’s loyalty. Because he’s not an official member of the Communist Party, Sorin has been unable to earn his official Ph.D. Now that he’s published a paper in the West without going through the proper state channels, the rebellious math genius becomes the subject of an investigation by Securitate agent Alecu Voican (Florin Piersic, Jr.). To dig up more dirt, Alecu enlists the help of Sorin’s friend Lucian (Dorian Boguţa), who has grown wealthy by collaborating with state officials. Alecu is also on the trail of engineer Elena (Ofelia Popii), a colleague and secret love interest of Sorin’s. Elena wants to join her husband, who had defected to France years earlier, but Alecu has other plans for her in his twisted game of deception and betrayal. With exacting period details, director Andrei Gruzsniczki shows how the Securitate effectively stoked paranoia and preyed on personal relationships to exploit weaknesses.